With the ASUNM elections just one week away, presidential candidates Ashkii Hatathlie and Caroline Muraida and their respective slates are preparing for the impending elections. Early voting elections take place today, and each slate, comprised of one presidential candidate, one vice presidential candidate and 10 senators, has its own unique ideas about the future of ASUNM and the University.
Impact
Hatathlie said one of Impact’s primary goals is to establish a scholarship to help students pay for the cost of textbooks. The scholarship would be based on both merit and need, and students would submit an application to apply for up to $500 in funding to help cover the cost of books.
ASUNM has not yet identified a pool of donors for the bike share program. When members secure donors for the program, they will ask the same donors to fund the textbook program. The bike share program will receive a one-time funding allocation of $50,000 from student fees if ASUNM can raise the remaining $250,000 through donations.
“We are not expecting students to pay for … the textbook scholarships,” Hatathlie said.
Impact is also looking into applying the Freshman Learning Communities (FLCs) model to communities for students who transfer to UNM after their freshman year and for non-traditional students. The FLC program offers combined interdisciplinary studies with small class sizes in core curriculum areas including psychology and biology.
“At this point in time, there is not this kind of program that caters to non-traditional students, whether they are transfers or just non-traditional in general,” Hatathlie said. “We recognize that non-traditional students don’t typically have time to be as involved on campus … and we would like to create more opportunities for them to be.”
The Casas Del Rio dorms will add more than 1,000 beds to campus. Impact said it plans to create a hierarchy system in order to deal with limited dorm parking spaces. The system would give preference to returning students.
“Right now, parking is first come, first serve,” he said, “We want to work toward … some sort of hierarchy, or structure. If you are a resident and returning for a second or third year, shouldn’t you have some sort of privileges? Ultimately, by creating this, it will be incentive for those returning students to live on campus once again,” Hatathlie said.
Students for Students
The regents proposed allocating $50 per student in fees to Athletics for next year. Muraida said the University needs to reconsider which departments and services should be funded by student fees, and which should be funded by other sources.
“A big issue with the financial integrity of the Student Fee Review Board is that it is (only) a recommendation board,” she said. “Regardless of how many hours are spent discussing cents in the board room, those deliberations are subject to Board of Regents. I would like to begin a discussion that leads us in the direction of a more permanent student decision.”
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Muraida said Students for Students hopes to reevaluate the purpose of a student fee next year and better explain the process to students.
“I would really like for the students as a whole to rethink the definition of a student fee, and what should it pay for,” she said. “The way we will go about doing this research is by comparing what peer universities (do) and focus on the unique aspects that make us not comparable to those peer institutions,” Muraida said.
Along with hiring 20 new faculty members, and increasing faculty salaries, the provost’s $4,273,330 five-year plan includes the creation of an honors college. Students for Students hopes to incorporate student input in the development process, by ensuring that students serve on the board of the honors college development team.
“We want to make sure there is consistent student representation throughout the entire process,” Muraida said. “And also, that the curriculum reflects an academic program that will add value to the University.”
Yearly, the administration asks ASUNM to appoint students to hold positions on several of UNM’s boards and committees, but Muraida said in the current ASUNM administration, many positions have gone unfilled. According ASUNM records, 24 student positions are unfilled at this time.
“There is a libraries committee, a study abroad and safety committee, a special education committee, a curriculum committee,” she said, “They come to ASUNM asking for these positions to be filled by students. I would make sure each of these committees is full in a timely manner, to ensure student representation on these boards where huge decisions are being made.”
ASUNM Early Elections today in the SUB from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
